Asda confirms hundreds of job cuts at Leeds head office amid sales woes

UK supermarket chain Asda has confirmed that staff consultations will begin on Monday as hundreds of jobs are expected to be axed, many of which will reportedly be at its Leeds head office.

This announcement comes after the supermarket chain suffered a fall in sales over the past twelve months, mainly due to the success of its competition from budget retailers such as Lidl and Aldi.

Sky Newsfirst reported that the number of jobs at risk could be into the hundreds. There are around 3,000 people currently working at Asda’s headquarters in Leeds.

In a statements, Asda said: “It’s well documented that in recent years, customers have radically changed the way they shop.

“We were the first of the “big four” to recognise this and launch a new strategy in 2013 yet the external pressures have accelerated at an increasingly rapid rate over the last 18 months.

“As a result, the industry faces major challenges and the certainty of permanent structural change. In the context of this, we also have to further change the way we do business. Today, we have started to talk to our colleagues in head office functions about what this means for them. We have made some difficult but necessary decisions but we must discuss these with our colleagues before we talk publicly.”

The cuts follow on from Asda’s US owner Wal-Mart announcing the closure of 269 stores in the US and Latin America, resulting in 16,000 job cuts.